Just received my square up in the mail!

[Former_Member]

I am so excited to use it but am waiting for my bank account to be verified.

How do you all keep track of transactions? I'm not sure my current income sheet will suffice. Any tips?

[Former_Member]

how long did it take to receive your square? did they offer expedited shipping? i would like to use one this weekend at a craft show.

[Former_Member]

glittergluedtogether says

How do you all keep track of transactions? I'm not sure my current income sheet will suffice. Any tips?
=================

Once you have transactions in the system you can download a spreadsheet. Don;t forget to use it for your cash transactions as well. Basically you can use it to calculate all your transactions and just chose the payment method at the end. It offers to send your customers a receipt even if it is a cash transaction.

[Former_Member]

MegsCrochetJewels says

how long did it take to receive your square? did they offer expedited shipping? i would like to use one this weekend at a craft show.

=================

I found it took a week to get everything pulled together. Get the App downloaded and start getting your bank verified., My Bank was really slow about that. Even if you don;t have the reader in hand you can then take cards and enter them manually. BUT. it is a higher transaction fee.

If you have an apple store near you you can pick up readers there as well.
If you were near me I would just give you one. I just got a box of them to hand out

[SaraAdrian]

I tried it out at an event and it worked really well for me. At the end I was able to see what I made in cash vs credit cards & it also lets you make notes as to what the transaction is. Deposit into your account for the first time takes three business days.

very useful, and nice that it doesn't charge a monthly fee to use.

[Darbynwoods]

you do not need the reader to use the service. you can just pay a higher fee.

you can get a swiper at an apple store.

put the swiper in your phone and pull out a cc of yours and charge $1. make sure you understand how to us it.

they will send you an email confermation for each sale.

hope this helps

david
www.facebook.com/darbynwoods

[MemoriestoYou]

I didn't realize that I could use it to record cash transactions until recently. I'm going to do that at my show this weekend. I still write faster than I can type on the iphone/ipad so I'll write it down and enter it all when I get a lull in sales. It will save me a lot of time after the show! By the time I get home, eat dinner and relax, I can't read my own writing!

[littlechampart]

on the square app you can set up your inventory, so you don't need to type with each transaction - you just click on the item you sold!
I use this feature and it works great - I had my champagne flutes, wine glasses, dog bowls, etc already programmed in, just had to click on them to add them to an order.
Also, you can text or email the customer a receipt, even if its a cash sale. I think that's a great feature.

The reader showed up in less than a week, and the bank account verification took only a few days.

Everything is very easy and straight-forward, I haven't run into any problems yet (except for when i forgot my password for it as a show was starting! eep!)

[Former_Member]

I ended up going with Intuits GoPayment.

I took minutes for me to down load the app and get qualified and my back set up. They also overnight me the reader after I tweeted about need one by that Saturday. They were really great with customer service.

With the reader you just type in the amount and swipe the card... then it give you the option to send an email receipt. Worked great for me!

[EastEndLight]

im sooo out of the loop! i thought you were talking about an ezup! haha!!!! i looked into this and it sounds great! does anyone else have concerns about the info the app takes from your cell or am i too nervous about technology??? also i live in a "summer community" what happens if someone disputes the charge? am i protected? or do i still have to swipe the card manually for a carbon copy to protect myself? (we always had to do this in retail stores, because people would dispute they were even there..) thanks for the info! -corinne

[Former_Member]

Don't fear the technology.

Square provides detailed receipts allowed by the law. I would be more concerned as a card holder if people were still taking all my info with a knucklebuster. How Unsecured is that for the customers personal info and credit..

The receipts from square for the vendor include
Partial e-mail address or cell phone number as provided by the customer.
Email would look like this <a href="mailto:T******@aol.com">T******@aol.com</a>
Cell would look like this 1-414-***-5555
Those will help you identify and prove the customers identity if they dispute the charge, and if they provide their cell number usually they get the receipt ringing in while they are still standing with you.
It is important for you the vendor to make sure you have your account set up to show your shops name in the receipt. This way they know who they purchased it from. E-mail receipt also show the location of the purchase as provided by your phones ability to figure out the GPS info.

The Receipt also shows the last 4 numbers of there card number, and square hold the Signatures on file

If you enter all the sales into the system the App will figure the sales tax for you, then ask if the sale will be cash or charge. If it is cash you can still enter the info and have a receipt sent to the customer. If all sales are entered you can simply view your account on line and see your total sales for the day.

You can also download a spreadsheet that will break down all the sales, Taxes collected and the fees you paid to process your credit cards.

So at the end of the day it is really easy to see what your total was for that day

[EastEndLight]

thanks so much!

[GlassyGrace]

I've yet to figure out how to download the spreadsheet. Anyone care to share directions? I don't see the option on my ipad while logged into the square program.

[Former_Member]

GlassyGrace says

I've yet to figure out how to download the spreadsheet. Anyone care to share directions? I don't see the option on my ipad while logged into the square program.

==========

You download the spreadsheet when you log into the Web site.

Go to Squareup.com
Sign in.
Select Payments (the dollar Bill)
Scroll to the bottom. and you will see an button that says "Download Spreadsheet"

[Former_Member]

All that was way too complicated for me...lol

What I do is ask for their drivers licence and record their #. Also since GoPayment doesnt require a signature I am going to write out a receipt and have them sign. Then we both have a copy and I have their info to find them encase I need it. (gopayment also give you the option to send them a receipt via email)

I like that with square you can get a signature but I like go payments
customer service better.

Here is a blog post I did on how I chose: http://megscrochetjewels.blogspot.com/

[Former_Member]

You do realize why square supports Twitter so much don't you?

Twitter and Square are both from the same founder.

And To be honest, I am an inner square member and have about 45 of the little readers laying around

[Former_Member]

Oh, and what are the fees with the INtuit Go Payment?

[Former_Member]

2.7% for swiping and 3.7% for manual entering of cc #'s. They are comparable to square. i can't remember for sure what squares are.

I didn't know that about square and twiiter:)

[Former_Member]

Does intuit have any additional fees beyond the per transaction fee.

Square also adds a 15 cent fee per transaction onto the manually entered transactions

[Former_Member]

I got mine a few months ago, and I love it! I've made lots of sales at crafts shows that I would have lost if I hadn't been able to take credit cards.

[Former_Member]

Forest: No .... just the transaction fees

[Former_Member]

I don't think SQUARE UP is ready for prime time -- there is NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT to resolve issues -- in fact, if you peruse their entire web site, there are no phone numbers provide for human-to-human contact in resolving payment issues. it's all through a one-way email system that doesnt' allow you to reply on the issue.

THIS IS SO SCARY---how can you trust any company that doesn't provide issue-resolution?

USE CAUTION WITH SQUAREUP.COM -- THEY JUST AREN'T READY TO HANDLE REAL-WORLD PAYMENT ISSUES!

[Former_Member]

They want you to tweet them. After all that is the preferred communication system of the founder of Square since he is the founder of twitter.

Visa has tossed its weight behind square with an undetermined about of seed money.

Yes not having a phone number for customer care is scary, but some folks still expect a business to still have a fax number.
You do get what you pay for perhaps, and what can you expect for free to get started. I'm on a tight budget and can't afford to pay for a reader, or monthly or annual fees some others are charging.

And if by real world you mean a brick and mortar store, perhaps. But for the guy selling at a craft show or farmers market, or just trying to offload a couch on craigslist square is a great way to go.

But some of the new features they are offering for using an I-Pad as a cash register complete with DIY product entry are really cool.
They have also introduced Card Chase. Now for places like a coffee shop with repeat customers, they can pay without there wallet, just their smart phone after there second visit to that establishment.
https://squareup.com/cardcase

[drandallpottery]

I used the "square" last weekend for a big show.
I had e-mailed them because my account was not verified...
They told me I could use it even if i wasn't verified yet.
I had a response within a few hours, and have been able to write to them with any question with a great turn around time.
I did great at the show, and the account was verified and my money deposited right away.
The only challenge i had was that the show was outside and down in a dip so at times I needed to walk away a few feet to get the card to go thru.
I loved the ease of the "square"...and will continue to use it.
As per their rep. they are working on getting a phone system set up and it should be available soon.

[Former_Member]

I just went to my first craft/art show this weekend, OMG if I dont have alot to learn....lol I would like to thank everyone here for the posts. I now have applied for Intuit Go payments, wow it only took about 10 minutes. So hopefully I'll have it in time for my show this weekend..
So again thanks to everyone I so glad to know I'm not alone in getting my bus/crafts going.
Thanks
Renee